the deficit right now is. the notion that something terrible will happen if we don't deal with the deficit right away. the fiscal cliff is a very different story. that's about reducing the deficit too fast. >> ifill: you call it an austerity bomb. describe what you mean by that. >> what's happening is that we are scheduled, unless something is done basically to do to ourselves gratuitously what has been happening to some of the european economies. we're going to have substantial spending cuts, substantial tax increases at a time when the dme is still very weak. of course that's a recipe for sliding back into recession. we set ourselves up with the land mine and the road in front of our economy which is not based on anything real, it's just based on our politicalness. >> ifill: speaking of political mess, both sides have what they say are opening gambits on the table. president obama at least his last week which calls for $1.6 trillion in revenues. the republicans came back with their own yesterday. as you look